THIS SILENT MUSIC to Make World Premiere Inside Philadelphia's James Turrell Skyspace

Created specifically for Philadelphia's James Turrell Skyspace, the interdisciplinary performance The Silent Music inaugurates a new ritual, bringing together three world premiere commissions that reimagine silence, light, and sound as the language of collective listening. On August 8, 2026, at 7:30pm, audiences become part of an immersive performance where music, architecture, and community converge in an act of witness.

The premiere will take place inside one of only 100 James Turrell Skyspaces worldwide. Reflecting the architecture itself, the works abandon the traditional use of piano in favor of marimba, glassy auxiliary percussion, and oud, creating a sound world conceived specifically for the space and disrupting the expected language of a classical concert.

Co-creators Katy Avery and Liz Lang arrive at This Silent Music having spent years creating interdisciplinary projects that examine identity, embodiment, and the ways contemporary audiences experience sound. Avery's recent commissioning initiatives - including Bombe Fits and a forthcoming exploration of body image through female-identifying performers - continue her interest in collaborative vocal performance. Lang's projects Prohibition and Rooted similarly blend classical and genre-bending experimentation, cultural history, and social inquiry.

This Silent Music builds on that shared artistic practice. Supported by the International Foundation for Contemporary Music through Avery's Cortona Sessions Fellowship, the collaborators are creating an experience that asks how ritual, attention, and community might help us navigate the psychological conditions of contemporary life.

Anchoring the program are three world premiere commissions: a duet by transmasculine composer LJ White incorporating sonified black hole data from astrophysicist Becka Phillipson; a song cycle by Hawaiian-based Mieke Doezema confronting ecological loss through natural soundscapes shaped by thelegacy of colonialism; and a song cycle by Lebanese composer Alex Wakim and poet George Abud that melds Arabic tonality and instrumentation with Western techniques, using tension and resolve as an act of cultural uncovering.

THIS SILENT MUSIC
WORLD PREMIERE • James Turrell SKYSPACE PHILADELPHIA

The Commissions:

At the End of It All

Composer: LJ White
Poetry: Nicole Young-Martin
Astrophysics Consultant: Becka Phillipson
Sopranos: Katy Avery & Liz Lang
Percussion: Darren Lin

This Silent Music

Composer: Alex Wakim
Poetry: George Abud
Soprano: Liz Lang
Percussion: Darren Lin
Oud: Harvey Valdes

Eucalyptus

Composer: Mieke Doezema
Poetry: Jonathan Sypert
Soprano: Katy Avery
Percussion: Darren Lin

Saturday, August 8, 2026 @ 7:30pm
A free, pre-concert conversation with members of the creative team will take place at 6:30pm

James Turrell Skyspace

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